When it comes to videos people access YouTube to watch free movies, videos and clips and if it’s about images then, social media site Instagram is the best choice. Similarly if you are looking for a stockpile of stories then, Allen Lau’s Wattpad is the top choice, as each month 15 million different visitors altogether spend three billion minutes on the website. Those, who are not familiar with the Wattpad must be thinking that that CEO Allen Lau would be making millions from his startup. However, in reality Lau has not monetized Wattpad and he has no plans to do so in the future as well, at least not yet.
Shedding light on this fact, Lau said that they are still looking to increase the user base of Wattpad, in spite of the fact that the website is at the top in all prominent app stores. The Canadian founder is first looking to have a user base in the hundreds of millions before making a move. If Lau manages to reach that goal then, it will put Wattpad in the same league as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. However, things were not the way they are at the moment, as initial Wattpad was just a scribble on a napkin, but later instead of becoming a part of the trash with the sweep of the broom it became the Best Overall Startup of Canada in 2011.
Lau was able to see this day because he had envisioned a solution after observing a problem. In an interview with TechVibes, he said that, “I was trying to solve a problem that I faced myself. I’m not a writer but I read a lot. My iPod is pretty empty. If you look at my recently watched movie list, you would see Jurassic park in there. Reading is my main thing. [I thought], ‘how can I bring my reading material on my mobile device?’ Because that is how I can best utilize my time effectively.”
Usually founders of startups in Canada take the first exit they get, but with Wattpad Lau has long-term plans, which can be judge from the fact that its the seventh straight year that the site is serving users without monetization.
Last year, Lau said that, “No one is giving me any pressure. In fact, investor Vinod Khosla [co-founder of Sun Microsystems and venture capitalist] said, ‘if I were you I would focus on building an amazing, transformative product—don’t worry about monetization for now. You are building something very special. Your user base, I can tell, they have some permanency, unlike a lot of the other social networks that can become obsolete in two years. You are building something that looks like a permanent fixture, so build it before you monetize.'”
In response to questions regarding the possible shifting of Wattpad out of Canada, Lau said, it is not happening, as “I’ve proved that I can build a super amazing, super disruptive company right here in Canada. I would argue that in Silicon Valley, there is too much silicon and not enough art. Wattpad is not only a technology company, it’s a blend of arts and science.”
Source: TechVibes
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